Month: January 2017

Bolognese daydreamer

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Photo at Pixabay

I guess all of us daydream about food. I’m still working on losing some of the pounds that girded themselves about my waist over the Christmas period – so perhaps my culinary reveries have been sharpened a tad.

One of the ingredients that will combine with those in this photo is presently browning in the pan. I know what outcome I’m dreaming of, and thinking particularly of a world renowned city where I once revelled in the most enormous dish of it. What does this photo call to mind for you? And where?

Blencathra in majesty

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Some days I think twice about lugging one of my much loved but heavy cameras along on a walk. Most days the camera wins. Some days the photographic results are not especially inspiring, and I wonder for a second time! But today I was glad to have the big Nikon with me. There seemed to be every size and cloud-type aloft, tempering and lending many shades of nuance to the fundamentally deep blue of the dome above them. And on days like this, cheeks burning, eyes watering, fingers stiff with cold, the sight of mighty Blencathra in majesty never fails to move me.  Every day this mountain sports a new coat – but day or night, hot or cold, light or dark, the sheer magnificence and permanence is an abiding delight – and comfort.

Checks and balances

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Photo at Pixabay

a poem … is an arena of checks and balances, of starts and stops and realignments. It is a ground where questions are more important than answers and answers do not necessarily negate each other. It is also a territory where there may be no “answer,” at least in the way we usually understand that word. There may be, purely, a freshly discovered space for observation.

Clare Morgan
What Poetry Brings to Business

May it be, then, in these days, that we all set aside a little more time for poetry!

Thanks for …

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Image at Pixabay

It’s not just photographs that can inspire and encourage. Graphic designers are engaged in the art of encouragement too. I love the reminder that this illustration offers. When I’d finished reading – thankful for that which awakens … informs … unites … challenges etc. – I found myself naturally moving on to enumerate a host of other areas in my life for which I have cause to be profoundly grateful. It’s a life-enhancing exercise. Reflection on causes for thanksgiving evokes further reasons for gratitude!

Lakeland frosty morning

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Everyone’s been smiling in and around our village today – something that is always noticeable when the day got off to a start like this one did. The glorious commixture of acres of frosted green, the steaming breath of humans and animals alike, deep blue sky and finger-pinching cold is something simply – well – magical!

For friends who really like lots of photos, here’s an album slideshow of my morning’s ambling.

After dark

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Largely indoors as a friend visited today, so my wanderings didn’t get underway until after dark. But there was a certain charm in it.

The iPhone in my pocket not only captured this image but apparently had miraculous and informative chats with my Fitbit wrist tracker, cheered me along with favourite songs (Andy Williams’ Born Free is great when you’re chugging uphill!), kept a check on heartbeat, pace and coverage, (am I dead or anything? – let me just check: no, says not, thankfully, but my flat feet hurt!).

Clever though it be, the iPhone didn’t quite capture the peace all-around as flocks of sheep, chewing still, as though someone had given them each a pack of Wrigleys, finally lay down. Some inner clock had told them ‘it’s time to rebuild your strength.’ My inner clock told me it was time for supper, even having had a sizeable lunch …

May I?

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Wild geese over south-west Scotland | Nikon D3300 & 40mm f/2.8 | click x2 to enlarge

May I be forgiven for being a little immodestly proud of this photo? Captured today from the passenger seat of our moving car (70mph), heading north, in south-west Scotland. I think I’ve always loved geese and ‘big sky’ – even before encountering my poet-inspiration Mary Oliver – but undoubtedly more since. Mary’s Wild Geese is perhaps one of her best-known and best-loved poems, and whenever I encounter a flight like this one my heart is warmed. I think of her, and inwardly recite an array of her works. Actually, during the course of the visit, and on the homeward journey, we saw perhaps half a dozen more such flights, several of them much larger than this one. What it must be, to be able to take off like that, honking encouragement to one another en route. Oh, and that sky …

Happy returns

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JMT & RM

When we were children we
used to give you the Giles
annual at Christmas:
‘To Dad, with lots of love,
from Simon, Sarah & Nick.’

And we still enjoy those
brilliantly drawn accounts
of loving family
life in which everyone –
cantankerous grandma,

the bobby, the parson,
postman, prime minister,
ma, pa, cold-struck Vera,
and the children, mad dogs,
cats, and neighbours, lived with

cheerful – if chaotic –
confidence that they were
loved and treasured. On your
eighty-fifth birthday I
know my siblings will join

me in telling you that
it has been like that for
us, Dad. You and Mum are
creators; together
you made that greatest gift

of all – our family
lives in that confidence
too. Happy birthday, and
thank you. Eighty-five times
and counting, we love you.

SRM

remembering RM, 10 January 1932 – 18 October 2017 &
JMT, his daughter-in-law, 23 February 1960 – 13 January 2018
with deepest love xx

Time’s flight and gift

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Image at Pixabay

Hello, my dear WindinmyWheels. It’s great to see you again. Do you know what happened to time since we were last together on the 21st December? That was ‘the shortest day’ according to the calendar, though it seems that every day since has been shorter.

Most nights I’ve clambered into bed with less than a third of my plans for the day accomplished. Bewildering – until I try to count the experiences of the last few weeks, some of which (ballet, choral singing, cinema, dining, family, friends, letters, poetry, theatre, and more) will crop up in our conversations over the next few weeks. Hardly a wonder that the days appeared shortened.

Anyway, apologies to you, dear blog, and to other lovely friends who have kindly noticed my unintended absence, and said so. I hope to resume our little daily contacts because our friendship is important in a million ways. Amongst these is the encouragement to reflect on what happens in the course of time’s flight. And celebrate unnumbered gifts and graces.

Belatedly: happy new year!